fantasy football

I was going to write about how awesome my Fantasy Football draft was halfway through the season, but after taking a look again, it wasn't all that great. After all, the only players still on the team are my picks from rounds 1, 2, 4, 6, and 9. That's 5 players our of 14 picked and only three of them (Vick, Johnson, and Pittsburgh) regularly start.

Thankfully, picking up Calvin Johnson in the 2nd round helps to cover up a lot of mistakes. Calvin Johnson has +23 points over the next highest scoring WR/TE and about double (or more) the production of all but the top 10 receivers. Calvin Johnson is like having an two or three WRs filling a single roster slot. Thank you.

I also did a good job with pickups throughout the season.

• Antonio Brown is ranked 14th in points scored among WR/TE
• Rob Gronkowski is ranked 10th in points scored among WR/TE
• Darren Sproles is ranked 6th in points scored among RB
• Dan Bailey is ranked 4th in points scored by K

Right now I'm 5-3 with hopefully some better luck the rest of the season. Wish me luck.

the browns

For some reason I was thinking back to the Browns of 2002. So many first round picks it's sickening. Our offense featured:
QB Tim Couch
RB William Green
WR Kevin Johnson
WR Quincy Morgan
WR Dennis Northcutt

On the defensive side, we had two first round picks:
DE Courtney Brown
DT Gerard Warren

Where are they now? It's 7 years later, so with all these young players, they should still be around, right? After all, Couch, Green, Brown, and Warren were all first round picks. Of all of these players, only two are still in the league today: Dennis Northcutt with the Detroit Lions and Gerard Warren with the Oakland Raiders, two teams that are almost as bad as the Browns are this season. The rest of them are all out of the league. So much for using the draft to stock up on talent.

quick update

Don't worry. I'll be putting up a full post later today. But for now: random thoughts.

I like how Keyshawn Johnson shows up on ESPN wearing jeans, Vans (or are they Keds?), and a t-shirt. I'm not sure if the sport coat he's wearing is his or provided to him on the set by ESPN.

Serena Williams is a man. Either that, or she's not really Venus' sister.

Whoever came up with the concept of "Sprays in the City" should be ashamed of him/herself. And if it's successful, we should be ashamed of ourselves. Either way, Mark McGrath should certainly be ashamed.

Home runs are over-rated. I'd rather see a double play or a tough play on the infield. On a related note, Barry Bonds should blow out his knee during batting practise over the All-Star break.

I'm feeling good, John!

USA! USA! USA! USA!

da bears

I was talking with one of my friends about the Bears, which naturally led to the discussion about Rex Grossman. We all know that he can be a bit inconsistent, but then again, is he really?

I took a look at his split stats:

http://www.nfl.com/players/playerpage/396159/splits/2006

If you go all the way to the bottom of the passing stats, there's a figure that shows how he performs in close games vs. blowouts. Basically, it says that in close games (when the game is within 14 points), he sucks. If the game is a blowout (15+ points), Rex is awesome. It also looks like he loves to throw interceptions when there's pressure (either when the Bears are behind or when the Bears are on their side of the field).

To sum it all up, Rex will self-destruct whenever the team is behind in a game. Something needs to be done about this.